Steelers 'not done yet' after shocking Europe

Netminder Matt Greenfield has been one of the stars of Sheffield Steelers' history-making qualification for the last 16 of the Champions Hockey League

Sheffield Steelers netminder Matt Greenfield says the UK champions are "not done yet" after making history in the Champions Hockey League.

The American starred as the Elite Ice Hockey champions beat, and eliminated, Czech side Dynamo Pardubice from the competition in a penalty shootout on Wednesday and have now reached the last 16 for the first time.

Steelers learned they had already qualified for the knockout stages 10 minutes before puck drop when results from elsewhere came in.

They will now face German giants Berlin Eisbaren over two legs next month, which means facing Liam Kirk, a Steeler product who became the first British-born-and-trained player to be drafted into the National Hockey League (NHL).

Steelers were given little chance of making it into the top 16 of the league phase of a competition which has been dominated by Scandinavian sides since its inception 10 years ago.

When they drew six top sides in their group, those hopes seemed even more distant, but they pulled off surprise wins over Swedish teams Skelleftea AIK and Vaxjo Lakers plus Czech aces Sparta Prague.

Steelers head coach Aaron Fox said that the 10th-place finish was a major achievement for a club that had only won one game in their two previous European campaigns but won four out of six this time.

"It's how we've done it, too, that sets the tone a little bit," he told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"It's not like we’ve beaten some challenger teams or lower-level opponents here.

Sheffield Steelers head coach Aaron Fox says his team have qualified the hard way

"We laughed when we saw the draw - Pardubice’s the only team from our draw that didn't qualify for the round of 16 and if they had earned that extra point (in the penalty shootout) all seven of us would have qualified so it was probably the hardest draw in all of the groups.

"To beat Skellaftea, Vaxjo and Sparta, now Pardubice is pretty special and the two one-goal losses, one on penalty shots, to the two Swiss teams (Fribourg-Gotteron and ZSC Lions Zurich) tells the story of how well we've played."

Greenfield finished the group campaign with the highest 'goals saved above expected' stat of all goalies in the tournament and put the seal on that with five stops in the shootout against Pardubice.

He said Steelers had set their sights on going even further, and relished a reunion with Maltby-born Kirk, now at Berlin after being drafted by Arizona Coyotes in 2018.

"We bend but never break, we're always in games and when a bounce happens we answer it back," Greenfield added.

"We didn't want to sneak in, we wanted a strong finish going into the round of 16.

"We're not done yet but it's no secret that it's a massive achievement. We weren't expecting to finish 10th with the draw we had."